In many different applications, in the case of data generation during a technical procedure, there is a requirement to transmit the generated data with the highest possible data rate from a data-generating component of a device to a data-processing component of the device that is physically separate from the data-generating component. This requirement occurs in many technical fields independently of the type of data generation and independently of the type and also the purpose of the further processing of the data. Herein, in many cases, the implementation of the data transmission is fully coordinated with the higher-ranking technical process, i.e. an independent technical solution for data transmission is developed, in particular if it is necessary to cope with particularly high data rates and preprocessing of the data, which is generally necessary for embedding in standardized transmission protocols, is not desirable or quite simply unfeasible during the data generation.
This scenario is encountered particularly frequently in medical imaging where comparatively large volumes of image data are generated in a very short time and have to be transmitted from, frequently moving, parts of devices to a computing unit that executes the corresponding reconstruction algorithms. The trend toward ever higher image resolution with each individual image generated due to the growing physical possibilities of imaging and toward a shortest possible sequence of individual images in order to avoid falsification due to body movements, intensify the requirements on said data transmission. For example, in the case of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) there is a need to transmit proprietary data signals from a local coil to a patient's bench. A further example of a transmission process entails the receive signals generated in a transducer for an ultrasound device.
Due to the large volumes of data to be transmitted, such applications frequently require the use of expensive, bulky connectors and correspondingly thick cables. Such connectors and cables have drawbacks when used with medical imaging devices as they are inconvenient to handle and very heavy. For example, the high weight of the transmission cables used means that a local coil for MRI has to have additional fastening to ensure it is not displaced by the cable. In addition, the connectors used frequently have numerous contacts since it is necessary to transmit a very high number of individual channels and the contacts are often difficult to clean and, in addition, are frequently not capable of a high number of mating cycles. Herein, it is in particular necessary to note that, even if redundancy channels are provided in the transmission protocol, a connector may be no longer able to provide reliable data transmission in the event of a few faulty contacts.
Herein, the requirements named are not restricted to connectors as transmission device(s) but can also extend to virtually every type of coupler for signal transmission with high data rates.